The Blurring
What I live with isn't forgetting, it's the blurring. A meditation on grief, memory, and continuing without answers three years after loss.
Latest
The Selection Effect: Exporting Burnout as Best Practice
The tech industry has a selection problem: extreme work culture gets amplified globally while sustainable practices stay quiet. For those learning about Silicon Valley from a distance, this creates a dangerously distorted picture of what actually drives success.
The Loneliest Conversation
Widowhood creates a cruel paradox: needing connection more while finding it harder to achieve. From Christmas parties to casual conversations, I navigate a world where my reality makes others uncomfortable, editing my life to protect their comfort while isolating myself further.
Why I Find It Hard to Write About Being a Widow
Why is it so hard to write about being a widow? My story has no redemptive arc. No community rallied, no family came together, no strength was discovered. Just sudden loss and ongoing adaptation without resolution. These are the widowhood stories we don't want to hear but need to tell.
Widowhood as a Memory Buffer Problem
Widowhood isn't just about missing someone—it's about losing your own biography. So much of my life only existed in shared memory. The cruel paradox: learning to live alone requires forgetting how we lived together, erasing the very past I'm fighting to remember.
Walking San Francisco 1: Kite Hill to Ord Street
San Francisco isn't built for straight lines. The hills interrupt them, as do the dead-ends, back alleys, and staircases that thread between properties. This walk reveals the city's hidden pathways, earthquake shacks, and the geology, zoning, and transit history beneath the views.
The Fog Economy: What If This Is Stagflation?
When stagflation last arrived, we saw gas lines and garbage piles. Today brings empty shelves and ships that never dock. As indicators contradict and familiar policies fail, history isn't repeating—it's mutating. We're entering a new economic fog, not by accident but by deliberate policy choice.
The High Cost of Saying No: Why I Can't Stop Talking About Housing
Atlanta isn't just building structures. It is filling them with life. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, we keep fighting over everything except how to make room for each other. Cities, like lives, are made of choices. Say no long enough, and you run out of chances to say yes.
Empty Ships, Empty Promises: Trump's Tariffs Are About to Decimate American Shipping
Trump's 145% tariffs triggered a flood of imports—but not a rise in American exports. West Coast ports are now sending ships back empty. This imbalance isn't just economic—it's personal. Jobs, wages, and trade flows are all at risk. The ships are still moving. But fewer are coming back.
Trump is a Critical Vulnerability
The Trump administration nearly killed CVE, the system that names and tracks software vulnerabilities worldwide. When trust-based digital infrastructure becomes a political bargaining chip, our entire security framework is at risk.
Nvidia, Export Controls, and The Trump Team's Art of Trading on Insider Knowledge
A perfectly timed Nvidia put trade preceded Trump’s export controls by hours—and paid off by over 600%. In a month already shadowed by suspicious options activity, this one raises new questions.
The Bond Market at the 5% Threshold
The 30-year Treasury yield approached 5% on April 11, 2025. Since 2008, long-term rates have stayed below this line. Crossing it doesn't guarantee collapse, but takes us off the map. We don't know what breaks when borrowing costs stay high or which assumptions stop working.
Finance
Placed Before the Memo: Suspicious AAPL Options Bet on a Policy Shift That Hadn’t Happened Yet
On April 11, 2025, traders placed large, targeted call option bets on Apple. That evening, the Trump administration quietly exempted smartphones from tariffs, news not publicized until April 12. These trades weren't speculation - they were placed before the memo was released.
Finance
3,500% Returns In 3 Hours: The Extreme Case of April 9, 2025
At 12:58 pm EST on April 9, 2025, someone placed perfectly-timed SPY options bets just 32 minutes before Trump's surprise tariff announcement. These $0.85 contracts soared to $31 each by closing bell. A $100,000 bet became $3.6 million in hours. The odds? A 1-in-4,484 chance of even minimal profit.
This Is What Insider Trading Looks Like
Zero-day options represent speculation in its purest form. Traders pay a small premium for a contract destined to expire worthless within hours unless the market dramatically swings your way. On April 9th, from 12:58 pm to 1:30 pm, millions of these high-risk bets flooded the market across multiple
Finance
$70 Million in 60 Seconds: How Insider Information Helped Someone 28x Their Money
On April 9, 2025, someone risked $2.5 million on SPY call options—and walked away with $70+ million in under an hour. The trade was placed at 1:01 pm. At 1:30 pm, Trump announced tariff pauses. The market exploded upward. These options that cost 85 cents were suddenly worth more than $25.
Tech
Data and Politics: Long Time Listener, First Time Caller
Hello! It's Data and Politics. I'm starting this newsletter to share thoughts that need more room than 280 characters. I've been in tech for over 20 years, with experience in AI/ML research. I'll probably be wrong about plenty—but I'll be entertainingly wrong with all the snark they deserve!